HELLO, CLOTHING is a collection of lyric poems about the connections between human beings, following an ekphrastic model that seeks truths about the world “second-hand”: through the language and images of other artists. A large section of the poems address the life and work of composer Morton Feldman, while many others explore the world of cinema or photography. The poems are particularly conscious of received forms. The collection takes to heart Harold Bloom’s assertion that “every poem is about another poem” and interprets this dictum as a celebration of formal structure. Whether through a traditional model such as the sonnet, sestina or villanelle; a stanzaic form derived from Elizabeth Bishop; or the re-writing of a single line by Denis Johnson, the book attempts to re-invent the work of its own inspiration, with the goal of discovering the inexhaustable pleasure of repetition.
